What we know
- President Joe Biden said he was ''outraged and heartbroken'' as he leveled some of his harshest criticism yet at Israel over the killing of seven people working for World Central Kitchen and called on the country to do more to protect civilians and aid workers. The Israeli military's chief of staff, Gen. Herzi Halevi, said the attack was a ''mistake following a misidentification.''
- The seven workers who were killed in the strike included a U.S. dual citizen and three British veterans, WCK said. The charity also told NBC News it believed an Israeli sniper fired on one of its vehicles two days before the deadly strike.
- Water cannons were used to disperse thousands of protesters who had gathered for a third night to call for early elections in Israel and the release of the rest of the hostages held in Gaza. Protesters reached the front of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's home in Jerusalem, and Israeli police say a Molotov cocktail was thrown.
- Israeli minister Benny Gantz called for elections to be held in September, two years before Netanyahu's term is set to end. Gantz said an early election would restore public trust and prevent a "rift in the nation."
- The death toll in Gaza has surpassed 32,900, according to the enclave's Health Ministry. Another 75,400 people have been reported injured. The Israeli military said at least 256 soldiers have been killed since the ground invasion of Gaza began.
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Biden and Netanyahu to hold first call since Israeli strike killed World Central Kitchen workers
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are expected to speak by phone tomorrow, according to a U.S. official with knowledge of the call.
It will be their first direct communication since seven aid workers were killed by an Israeli strike in Gaza this week.
The discussion comes after Biden on Tuesday delivered some of his strongest criticism of Israel since the start of its war with Hamas, saying that he was “outraged and heartbroken” by the deaths of the World Central Kitchen humanitarian workers, who were killed by an Israeli airstrike on Monday.
“Israel has not done enough to protect aid workers trying to deliver desperately needed help to civilians,” Biden said in his statement Tuesday.
José Andrés says his aid workers were targeted 'systematically, car by car'
José Andrés insisted on an investigation by the U.S government into the Israeli strike that killed seven people working with his aid organization in Gaza, saying they were targeted "systematically, car by car."
Israeli officials have opened an investigation into the strikes on three World Central Kitchen vehicles, saying that a misidentification led to the attack. Andrés rejected the assertion in an interview with Reuters, saying his teams worked in close coordination with Israel Defense Forces and were hit in military controlled, deconflicted zone.
“This was over a 1.5, 1.8 kilometers, with a very defined humanitarian convoy that had signs in the top, in the roof, a very colorful logo that we are obviously very proud of,” Andrés said.
He also added that it was "very clear who we are and what we do.”
Andrés said that investigations should be launched by the home countries of each of the six foreign aid workers killed, which includes the United States and the United Kingdom.
Iranian Supreme Leader says Israel will pay for attack on consulate building
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed revenge for the attack on the country's consulate building in Syria, which both Iran and Syrian officials have blamed on Israel.
Seven members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps., including two commanders, were killed in a strike on the ambassador's residence and a consular building. In a series of posts on X, Khamenei said that Israel "will receive a blow for their actions."
"The zionist entity’s attack on our consulate in Syria will not solve its problems in Gaza," Khamenei said. "The failure of the zionist entity in Gaza will continue, and desperate attempts such as the terrorist attack on the Iranian consulate in Damascus will not save them from defeat."
Josep Borrell, foreign affairs representative for the European Commission, posted on X today that he spoke with the Iranian foreign minister about the strike.
"The inviolability of diplomatic premises and personnel must always be respected," Borrell wrote. "We need to avoid further escalation."
Sen. Schumer supports Gantz's call for new elections
Sen. Chuck Schumer, the highest-ranking Jewish official in the U.S., supported minister Benny Gantz's call for early elections today, describing it as the "right thing to do."
"When a leading member of Israel’s war cabinet calls for early elections and over 70% of the Israeli population agrees according to a major poll, you know it’s the right thing to do," Schumer wrote on X.
The statistic referenced by Schumer was from a poll from the Israel Democracy Institute published in February, which found a majority of Israeli voters wanted early elections.
Schumer urged Israel to hold new elections in a Senate floor speech last month, a rare public rebuke of the current leadership from one of Israel's strongest supporters in Congress. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticized Schumer, describing the senator's statement as an inappropriate intervention by a foreign politician during wartime.
Spanish PM says Israeli explanation of aid workers attack is ‘insufficient and unacceptable’
DOHA — Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said explanations provided by Israel about the killing of seven people working for the aid charity World Central Kitchen in a Gaza airstrike were insufficient and unacceptable, demanding further details.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the incident “a tragic event in which our forces unintentionally harmed non-combatants," adding that “this happens in war."
“That is unacceptable and insufficient, and we are awaiting a much stronger and more detailed clarification, after which we’ll see what action to take,” Sanchez told a news briefing on Wednesday while visiting Qatar.
World Central Kitchen was founded by Spanish American chef Jose Andres.
Displeasure with Biden’s handling of war on display at closed-door White House meeting
WASHINGTON — Just five minutes into a meeting with President Joe Biden, a Palestinian American doctor who has treated gravely injured patients in Gaza couldn’t bear to stay, so he left.
Dr. Thaer Ahmad, who specializes in emergency medicine, recalled getting emotional when talking about the many Palestinians he cared for, describing the scale of death in the six months since the war began.
“The decision to leave was a personal one,” he told NBC News in a phone interview, explaining he wanted to show the White House that “it was important to recognize the pain and the mourning that my community was in.”
Ahmad stressed that he wanted “to let the administration feel the way that we felt this past six months and kind of get up and walk away from them.”
He was one of only six Muslim American community leaders who attended a small meeting on Tuesday with Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and senior administration officials at the White House.
Majority of U.K. voters support ending arms sales to Israel, Guardian reports
A YouGov poll 56% of voters in the United Kingdom support a ban on arms sales to Israel, according to an exclusive report by The Guardian today.
The poll was commissioned by Action for Humanity, a non-governmental aid organization based in the U.K., and was conducted prior to the Israeli strike that killed seven people working with World Central Kitchen.
When broken down by political affiliation, Labour voters and Lib Dem voters strongly supported an arms deal ban at 70% and 71%, respectively. The poll found that 38% of Conservative voters supported a ban.
Additionally, 59% of all voters polled said they believe Israel is violating human rights in Gaza.
Russia says any escalation after Iran consulate attack is on Western allies
Russia has called for the United Nations Security Council to meet over a strike this week on an Iranian consulate building, saying the council has not met on such a topic since the 1999 NATO bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade.
On Monday, Iranian officials said Israeli forces struck a residence for the Iranian ambassador and a consular building in Syria. Israel has not commented on whether or not it was responsible.
Dmitry Polyansky, Russia's deputy permanent representative to the U.N., described the strike in Damascus as a "casus belli" an act provoking war. He said that any further escalation falls on United States, Great Britain and France, allies of Israel.
"Western ‘triplet’ have talked about everything, but the airstrike on a diplomatic facility," Polyansky said yesterday. “Bottom line is that we have a targeted air attack by one state on a diplomatic mission of another. "